Matt's Book Blog

The Naked and the Dead

2011-09-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

High on my embarrassing list of authors I've never read, until recently, was Norman Mailer. But I recently read The Naked and the Dead and can consequently take him off my list.

Mailer is most famous for his non-fiction (which you obviously now know I haven't read), and it seems like Naked is respected but people often have issues with it. I get that. The book drags on at times, being almost too thorough in its depiction of each character's past, opinions, and relationships with every other character in the novel. Nevertheless, it strikes me as strangely similar to Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Both novels are about World War II soldiers stuck on an island, yet seem to be about something far more. For Naked, I think it was about human nature, or at least the nature of the 20th century American. The portrait Mailer paints is of people whose self-loathing leads to hatred towards others. They are all trying to find the American capitalistic dream no matter who they have to hurt on their way there. But they all seem to feel empty, full of anger, self-pity, and frustration. In other words, it is fairly bleak, despite the fact that only a few of the characters die. I found it to be very thought provoking and would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind books that pass the five hundred page mark. If you have ideas about the book (agree or disagree), or have read a different Mailer book that you'd recommend, I'd love to hear about it.

And I hope to read The Executioners Song in the next year or two. Add it to the never-ending list of books to read... That's it for now.

Matt

I'm Back

2011-09-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

I just finished a)getting my MA in English, and b)getting a job teaching English, and c)moving, and thus feel like I can get back to this blog. So I intend to start posting about what I'm reading. And, as usual, it's a lot. So be prepared...

Matt

March Reads (so far)

2009-03-19T20:55:00.001-07:00

Since reading Naomi Klein's wonderful book, here is what I have finished this month:

The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs
Last year I read and enjoyed Jacobs' highly popular The Know-It-All (in which he read the entire encyclopedia) and was very excited to dig into a book with such a good premise. And... it was alright. I enjoyed watching Jacobs struggle to fulfill literally every command of the Bible. It was brilliant, like incarnate satire or something to that effect. But for somebody who was trying to do everything only "according to his literal interpretation of the Bible", he seemed to have a lot of advisers. I guess I wished he would have done it even more on his own. But that's not a big deal. What I really wish I could have read was some real reflection at the end. Jacobs wrote a very interesting, extremely timely book, and he really should have offered some more thoughts as one who has just finished such a wild year. Not just thoughts on missing his beard, but on faith, God, America, literalism, etc. I know we as the readers are supposed to probably bring our own interpretation, but come on, if you are going to spend a year living this out, offer some final parting thoughts about what this has really meant to how you view the world! Okay, that all sounds really negative: I have those two criticisms, but was ultimately pleased and would recommend the book to absolutely anybody (and if AJ Jacobs reads this, please know that I have told my friends to read your books, so don't get mad).

Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger
I loved The Catcher in the Rye but had waited years before finally reading another Salinger book. Found this one beat up and broken down in a crummy used book store for 50 cents and figured what the heck. It was fascinating and different. First of all, the story reads more like a play than a novel, with long dialogues and only a few scene changes. Very interesting. Salinger uses the Gass family, specifically Zooey and Franny, to ask how a person is supposed to live in our empty, shallow world. Knowledge and intelligence are put up against religion, though it seems as if Salinger might be implying that both are equally self-centered and empty. Anyways, it is a thought-provoker, though not as great as Catcher (what up Caulfield!).

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Alexie is the business! I try to read a lot of books by Native Americans, but Alexie's are always my favorites (with the exception of Indian Killer, which I strongly disliked). He takes on serious themes, but does so with a mix of humor and irony, which I believe makes his stories even more powerful than a lot of other authors'. Anyways, this book is for young adults (and is at least partially autobiographical), so it is a quick, entertaining, and yes, thought-provoking read. Read it, then read every other book Alexie has written... As a side-note, Alexie is actually in town right now, but I have been unable to go listen to him. That sucks.

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
This served as my introduction to the Nobel winner Mann. He was obviously brilliant. All I really want to say about this book here is that it is a serious novel despite its short length, and I advise you to read it if you are interested in capital l Literature, but not to do so if you are only looking for a fun story. This is instead an engaging story, one that brings up powerful questions about art, aging, mortality, creativity, beauty and love. It is absolutely profound.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
For years I have meant to read this book. I finally did. It was quite enjoyable. I liked it more than most of his short stories, and frighteningly saw many similarities between the world he described and the one I live in now. Empty lives spent watching a television while completely cut-off from other human beings...hmmmmm...

Decolonising the Mind by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
Wow. I need to do a separate post for this work, but I don't have the time. Thiong'o is a brilliant author from Kenya who has used literature to fight against the neo-colonialism of multinational businesses and the governments enslaved to them. He is profound, lives out his beliefs to the point of being imprisoned (not to mention refusing to write anymore except in his native language rather than a colonial language), and uses the written word to change the world. This is a painful, challenging and inspiring book, as well as a great resource into understanding postcolonial writing and literary criticism.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
It took some serious guts to write political satire while living in Stalin's Russia. But Bulgakov did it. Satires like Catch-22 and Gulliver's Travels can get pretty wild, but Bulgakov's takes the cake. With main characters like Satan, an alcoholic/talking cat, Pontius Pilate, Jesus, Matthew (the gospel author), literary men, and an insane asylum that keeps getting fuller and fuller, Bulgakov sets you up for a strange, strange ride through early 20th century Russia. This is a weird book, no doubt about it. But it is also a brave book about the persecution writers faced, both from the government and possibly even from other writers. It is brilliant in its strangeness, and is also worth a post of its own, but its not going to get it. Sorry. Check it out if you feel like riding through Bulgakov's Russia on cannonball.

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
I'm going to say something crazy: I believe this is Vonnegut's best book. Ever. For sure. Player Piano was my favorite, but no more. Please read this book immediately. Vonnegut uses Leon Trout, son of the infamous Kilgore Trout, to narrate the story of the almost end of the human species. What causes that end? Our "big brains" according to Trout, who uses evolutionary theory to mock our supposed advanced state of being; an advanced state that leads to hatred and jealousy and violence and pride and drunkenness and many other silly things people do. With usual Vonnegut wit, irony, and just plain silliness (he puts an * every time before a characters name who is going to die), the modern world is put in its place; a very humble place. Man this book is good!

All for now! Peace!
Matt

Fences and Windows by Naomi Klein

2009-03-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

I recently finished Naomi Klein's Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the front lines of the globalization debate. It was an eye-opener for me, showing me how little awareness I have really shown in the past decade concerning what has been happening in our world. Klein's writing is honest and straightforward, and ultimately shows both that what currently makes our world go round isn't working (written long before the economic meltdown of today) and that, as they say, there is another way.

$$$

Discussing globalization and the protesters often associated with it, Klein points out that the protesters are globalized themselves and definitely not anti-globalization. Instead, these are men and women dedicated to freedom and true democracy. That means that they believe human life is more valuable than money, debt payments, corporate welfare, G8, etc. While the rest of the world sells itself and its freedoms for more stuff, some are resisting and sacrificing themselves for the greater good.

$$$

And it really is a sacrifice. Klein writes about the joy and humor of the protests, which is blatantly ignored by television crews waiting for gas and a broken window to make their newscasts more exciting. So every time a protest is about to happen, the news focuses on potential violence, giving the police and corrupt politicians (as in all politicians) an excuse to build large walls/fences and get ready to beat down a bunch of unarmed people looking to help the least of these. Peaceful people are gassed, imprisoned, and yes, even killed, for using their rights of free speech and being willing to take an honest assessment of where capitalism has brought us as a globalized society. This may be one-sided reporting, but that doesn't make it any less true. As the IMF makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, Klein's book speaks some honest truth to an evil, greedy empire. Rome is no longer a political, but an economic empire, taking over the entire world and turning it to shit.

$$$

After reading the book, I rented Klein's documentary, The Take. It's about men and women in Argentina who have lost their jobs after the factories they worked in were shut down. The factories were shut down because, according to the owners, they were no longer profitable. So these people move into the dormant factories and get them going again. They find suppliers and buyers, make product, have the same salary for everyone (read no bloated income for managers, CEO's, owners...) and turn a profit! So of course the government, the rich (same thing?) and the police are trying to shut these people down, but it's a challenge when the rest of the country supports what they are doing. Anyway, the story goes from there, and it is inspiring to see as they practice a sort of mixture of capitalism and socialism that truly works.

$$$

So, final rundown: Naomi Klein is the business, as is everything she writes. Capitalism, the IMF, G8, G20, etc are not morally neutral, but actually quite morally corrupt. The Take is definitely worth watching, and you can get it from Netflix. So there ya go.

$$$

Peace,

Matt

February Reading

2009-02-27T20:52:00.000-08:00

Technically February isn't over yet, and I could very likely finish a book or two more before Sunday, but as it is, I'll give an update on some great books I've dug into lately. Depending on your point of view, February was either really slow or really busy for me. Work was very slow, which meant I was very busy reading. Here's some of what I was gazing into:

White Noise by Don DeLillo
DeLillo really, truly is the business. If you want to understand our modern world and what it means to be trapped inside its corporate technorcacy, its rampant commercialism where fear is only out-thought by greed, consumerism, and group-think, start with DeLillo, and start with White Noise. I don't know what took me so long to get to this book, but I'm so glad I finally read it. It's hard to describe without giving away the plot (which is what most booksellers just choose to do), but let's just say it is a good description of who we are and how we live, even if it is given in the framework of the 1980's. Just freakin' read it 'cause it's the business. Read it! I recommend it over everything else I'm going to write about this post, and everything from the past two posts! It's that good.

Julias Caesar by William Shakespeare
It's Shakespeare, what can I say. Here's what I will say, I suppose: I always hated Shakespeare, then had a teacher who taught him really well (lo and behold she actually wrote this book about teaching Shakespeare!) and I was quite please at the age of 21 to discover that I in fact love Shakespeare! Now I am slowly trying to make my way through everything he ever wrote. I enjoyed reading this play and am actually looking to read Plutarch's Lives soon to better understand the history behind the story. Anyways, I enjoyed it, if you care.

The Theban Plays by Sophocles
I cannot explain it, but I truly enjoy reading the old Greek/Roman plays. This was fun, especially to finally have the story of Oedipus finally explained.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Ironically, I believe today would have been Steinbeck's birthday... A theme you might notice on this blog: there are a lot of classics, books that most people read when they are in high school or early college, that I have never read and am trying to make up for now by digging into them in the midst of lots of other readings. This is one of them. I have read a few of Steinbeck's works, and am honestly still making up my mind about him. He seemed to try to give a voice to the marginalized, which I am very happy about, yet something about him and his writing style leave me feeling, well, unfulfilled. I can't say a whole lot about it yet, but I will sit on that thought and come back to it if something unfolds...

Faith and Violence by Thomas Merton
I truly wonder if the world has seen as good of Christ-follower since brother Merton's death. Every book is a gem. F & V was good, but definitely made for its time: a lot of talk about the death of God, existentialism, black panthers, etc. I believe this is how theology should be written, but unfortunately the multitude who have tried to take up where he left off leave a lot to be desired. Anyways, its a good book, but more about violence many decades ago than about any sort of timeless ideas about violence and faith.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Again with books I had never read... I like books about a future that should have already come by the author's calculations. At the same time, I get a bit fearful when I think that some of the things predicted may be here in more pervasive forms than I am really aware. Hmm. Huxley's world is fearful in its apathy and lack of desire to look beyond the surface where all is pleasure and simple. Good Lord, it is not literally our world, yet it is exactly our world beneath the surface. We are living in a brave new world, where we are entertained constantly, look for immediate fixes to every problem, immediate gratification to any and all desires, and never question the structures of power that keep us engulfed in a prison of stupidity. Shit. I don't know if that means I love or hate this book.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
What do you say about this play??? Some say it is a two act play best described as a play where nothing happens twice. There are a lot of interpretations of what it is actually about, or could be interpreted as being about. Honestly, my opinions take a long time to form on these things, so I'll just say if you are interested, you should just read about it here.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Seriously, how had I never read this before? What an unsettling but amazing book this is! So horrifically violent, yet showing that the unspeakable horrors of the individual are nothing compared to the evils conducted in the name of the state. Wow.

Close Range by Annie Proulx
Proulx is definitely one of the best writers in the U.S. today. I cannot believe how brutal these stories are, nor how drawn in I was with these terrible people living in such a horrible place (no offence to Wyoming, I enjoyed every visit there I ever had). Writers of the West define themselves especially as people with a place, and Proulx has settled in quite nicely. I would easily put her name on the list next to Stegner and Maclean.

The Shack by William P. Young
I was told I might be offended by the theology of Young's book. Although I typically find the theology of any Wal-Mart-Christianity book (ahem, Best Life Now or Later, Purpose Driven Whachamacallit, Prayer of Jezebel) absolutely repulsive and full of American ignorance disguised as Christianity, I would say this book is far about those. The theology is still coming from a rich American perspective, but still, it isn't too bad. If I was offended by anything, it was that this book was published without a better editor doing some serious work on it first. I am seriously thinking about e-mailing this company and getting a job there making their next big seller not look like it was written by an 8th grader. But theologically, it was actually a good portrait of the trinitarian God who is discussed in seminaries but not too often mentioned in the pews of your local church.

The Bloody Streets of Paris by Jacques Tardi and Leo Malet
Guilty pleasure confession: I grew up on comic books and now love graphic novels. This was my first French graphic novel. It is a detective story set during the German occupation of France during WWII. Although it's a bit cliched when it comes to the old fashioned private detective stories, I'd be lying not to say that I enjoyed the read.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Yet another book I'd always meant to read. Actually what finally caused me to pick up Shelley's classic is a recommendation by Thomas Pynchon of all people, who basically gave it the label of being a Luddite novel. I'd never thought of it that way, but being a self-confessed Luddite (or at least a wannabe), I decided it was now a must-read. And this is truly a wonderful, horrible, engrossing tale. By the end of it all, I left frustrated at both Frankenstein and his creation, finding both to be horrible yet sad at the same time. Human progress, something that can be either good or evil, is shown to be both at the same time. It leaves the reader in a quandry, painfully so, and rightfully to, I might add.

Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi
Yup, another graphic novel... Last year I read the two Persepolis storis (and saw the movie), so when I saw this one at the library, I figured what the heck. So sad. What else can I say. I finished this short little GN and just felt sad for all of its characters, especially if the protagonist really is Satrapi's uncle. SAD!

Get Your War On by David Rees
Since the publication of this short book, a much larger collection has been realeased with YEARS more worth of hilarious shorts. If you don't know what this is, GYWO is short comic sketches, like you'd see in the newspaper, that satirically points out the absurdity of our nation and its horrendously misguided foreign policies. It does this with simplistic clip-art styles mixed with obscene street language. Hilarious, harsh, and almost too smart.

There ya go. That's where I'm at so far this month.
Peace,
Matt

Recent Reads

2009-02-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

Though I have high hopes for this blog, I realize I currently am falling far from my initial bare minimum. With a large amount of uncharacteristic optimism, I return right now to at least share a brief bit about the books I finished in January and early February:

The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness
Laxness was an Icelandic author who also just happens to have won the Nobel Prize for literature. This is a great story about simplicity, living up to expectations, and the difference between local and global communities. Although it isn't his most famous work, this worth reading. Oh, and it made me laugh outloud more than once.

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami
This is the first Murakami book I have read. He wrote this collection of short stories following the Kobe earthquake in the mid-90's. It is fun to read, and really does feel like Kafka-turned-Japanese. At the same time, sometimes the writing felt too simple. Maybe it was the translation, or perhaps there are some things I don't understand about Japanese literature (very possible), but there were bits of dialogue and narration where I felt like even I could do better. Who knows.. Anyways, it was still a fun book, and a great beginning to a hopeful foray into Japanese lit.

Jean Baudrillard by Richard Lane
Whenever I see a book by/about Baudrillard at the thrift store or used book store, I buy it. So I bought this one and read it ASAP. It was the summarization of Baudrillard I had been wanting for so long! Lane does a great job of putting Baudrillard in context of his predecessors and contemporaries, defining his philosophy, and explaining the brilliance and ambiguity of it. Now I feel the need to reread some of Baudrillard's works (not to mention get some more).

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
I don't like Vonnegut's short stories as much as his novels or essays, but there are a few absolute gems in this one. Still, it's Vonnegut, so is good nonetheless. Seriously, every American should read every Vonnegut book. Period. Nothing more to say on that one.

Numbers in the Dark by Italo Calvino
Annie Dillard kept mentioning Calvino in her book Living by Fiction, so I figured I should listen to her and read some of his stuff. This collection of short stories/parables was my start. BRILLIANT. Read it.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Finally found it in Value Village! Recently I've been let down by multiple books that received far more hype than they deserved. This one wasn't one of those. Sooooooooooo gooooooooooood! I cannot even describe how great of a book it is, nor how much it deserved the Pulitzer. Thank you Junot Diaz!

Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr
King is the greatest American to have ever lived. I love hearing/reading his speeches. This book is a collection of sermons, compiled by King before his death. It is a wonderful treat to read these and imagine him behind a pulpit on a Sunday morning. Stirring.

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Written by a woman whose name is often mentioned alongside Flannery O'Conner and William Faulkner. Although I would not personally choose to equate her to them as equally profound, Welty does write quite well, and I found myself up late at night frustrated, and even angry, with her characters. In other words, it was written well enough to get me thinking and emotionally tied-in.

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
I'd never read it... Speaking of books being worth they hype. Wow. Painful. Angering. And so amazingly truthful in its depiction of mankind's love and need for violence. Jeez.

God's Debris: A Thought Experiment by Scott Adams
This book, along with The Religion War, show how much of a genius the Dilbert creator truly is. It reminded me of Ishmael, but not as good, nor as good as The Religion War. Still, this is a thought-provoking book, challenging modern ideas on God, chance, relationships, evolution and yes, the meaning of life itself. Not enough writers want to really go into this, especially when they have more questions than answers, so I am thankful for Adams' choice to do so. Worthwhile, though not exceptional.

Descartes in 90 Minutes and Kant in 90 Minutes by Paul Strathern
See post below...

That's it for now. I'll try to do better in the future.

Peace,
Matt

...in 90 minutes

2009-02-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

Many months ago I discovered Paul Strathern's ...In 90 Minutes series at my library. These are wonderful little introductions/summaries for different philosophers from the past. They give a short biography, a summary of that person's thought and the context in which it came, as well as a list of quotes and key concepts. Even if you have read that person's work, it is quite helpful as a quick reminder. I had initially read books on Plato and Nietzsche. Just recently I read Descartes in 90 Minutes and Kant in 90 Minutes. They were both great. These are definitely not in depth analysis, but if you looking for at least an inkling of understanding when it comes to specific philosophers and why they matter, this is a decent place to start.

Peace,
Matt

V by Thomas Pynchon

2008-10-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

Of all the books to write about when starting a blog about books, V is quite possibly the most difficult I could have chosen. But here goes...

If you have not yet read Thomas Pynchon, I would recommend beginning with something like The Crying of Lot 49 or Slow Learner. Not that either is a whole lot easier, but they are at least shorter reads as you decide whether or not you like Pynchon's writing style. Why do I suggest such a thing? Because Thomas Pynchon is almost too brilliant, knowing too much about too many things and combining all that knowledge with writing abilities that go beyond anything I am used to, all wrapped up together in extremely dense packages of postmodern wordplay that can barely even be called books. Yeow.

V, Pynchon's first novel, is a fine example of what I have been talking about. It is so complex, shifting characters, years and locations so often, all the while referencing people, places and events that most average people know little about, that a reader like myself is continually having to refer to dictionaries, encyclopedias and Wikipedia for at least a little bit of context.

Of course, even with some context, the reader is still left with little clue as to what is actually going on in the world of V. To start with, you are never entirely sure who or what V actually is! I am pretty sure V is a woman who may or may not still be alive at story's end, but there is the strong possibility in the end that V is a place or a thing. In the book, a man named Stencil (whose name alone had me up late at night thinking and questioning) is searching the globe for V. He follows strange leads to hear the most random tales and live among an odd assortment of characters, including Benny Profane, the other lead character. Profane is a self-professed schlemihl and a member of the Sick Crew, a group of good-for-nothing selfish partiers reminiscent of Kerouac's group of friends in On the Road (which makes sense, as Pynchon's talks about his love of this particular book in the introduction to Slow Learner). In the book Stencil and Profane each have their own story lines, which slowly intersect, even as other peoples and stories show-up only to be left by the wayside. It's classic Pynchon.

In the end we are left with these eerie references to war and race and sexuality, with no easy answers given. Beyond all of that, I believe Pynchon is consistently challenging our way of understanding what a story is and the reason why it is told. Does a story need to be wrapped-up in the end with a pretty little bow? After all, our own stories rarely end that way; rather, endings and beginnings constantly intersect, while some portions never really find closure at all. It's all fragmentary; bits and pieces that somehow go together, even if we don't ever get what the entire point was to begin with.

Some quotes:

"If there is any political moral to be found in this world," Stencil once wrote in his journal, "it is that we carry on the business of this century with an intolerable double vision. Right and Left; the hothouse and the street. The Right can only live and work hermetically, in the hothouse of the past, while outside the Left prosecute their affairs in the streets by manipulated mob violence. And cannot live but in the dreamspace of the future. What of the real men of the present, the men-of-no-politics, the once respectable Golden Mean? Obsolete; in any case, lost sight of. In a West of such extremes we can expect, at th every least, a highly 'alienated' populace within not many more years."

Perhaps history this century, thought Eigenvalue, is rippled with gathers in its fabric such that if we are situated, as Stencil seemed to be, at the bottom of a fold, it's impossible to determine warp, woof or pattern anywhere else. By virtue, however, of existing in one gather it is assumed there are others, compartmented off into sinuous cycles each of which come to assume greater importance than the weave itself and destroy any continuity. Thus it is that we are charmed by the funny-looking automobiles of the '30's, the curious fashions of the '20's, the peculiar moral habits of our grandparents. We produce and attend musical comedies about them are conned into a false memory, a phony nostalgia about what they were. We are accordingly lost to any sense of a continuous tradition. Perhaps if we lived on a crest, things would be different. We could at least see.

To have humanism we must first be convinced of our humanity. As we move further nto decadence this becomes more difficult.

"Once I will say it, is all: that Crew does not live, it experiences. It does not create, it talks about people who do. Varese, Ionesco, de Kooning, Wittgensteind, I could puke. It satirizes itself and doesn't mean it. Time magazine takes it seriously and does mean it."

I don't know if this has been very helpful. Maybe V was not a good book to start this blog with, but alas, here we are and here we shall begin. So I leave you with a fitting final quote from V: "V. by this time was a remarkably scattered concept." Amen.